What’s the last movie you saw that created an imaginary world that was actually beautiful, bursting with color and beauty and inspiration? A world that reminded you of the feeling you had as a child the first time you saw Dorothy open that door on the Technicolor world of Oz? A world you would actually like to enter and walk around in?
So many movie fantasy worlds these days, from Wrath of the Titans to John Carter, from Harry Potter to Red Riding Hood, are dominated by somber earth tones and chilly computer animation. Ironically, two of the most colorfully imaginative exceptions, James Cameron’s Avatar and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, were monster box-office hits. Yet “dark,” “gritty,” “edgy” fare remains the Hollywood default.
When Relativity approached Tarsem Singh with the offer of directing a live-action Snow White movie, they suggested an “edgy” approach, but Tarsem wasn’t interested: He wanted to do a family film. The result is a whimsical, riotous movie with a visual brilliance unlike any other family film in recent memory. The story itself is uneven and not always quite as family-friendly as advertised, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a recent family film that was more worth the price of admission to see on a big screen.
In a way, one could say that the director of Mirror Mirror is the anti-Burton, and I mean that in the best possible way. Like Burton, Tarsem is a brilliant, quirky visual stylist, a poet of production design with an eye for the sumptuously absurd. Yet there’s a darkness to practically all of Burton’s work, including Alice in Wonderland — a lurid, unhealthy pallor amid the riot of color and whimsy, an aura of the gothic and the grotesque. No one in his right mind would want to visit Burton’s Wonderland — or rather Underland — and, anyway, so much of it was painted on computer screens that it never looked like you could in the first place.
Tarsem prefers to avoid digital fakery, relying as much as possible on real sets and practical effects. Although his worlds often look like paintings, they are clearly paintings you could walk around in. The strain of Victorian Gothic infusing Burton’s imagination is absent in Tarsem, whose eclectic influences vary from film to film.
The look of Mirror Mirror begins with Snow White’s fairy-tale castle, an elaborate cluster of spires and onion domes overtly inspired by Antonin Gaudí’s surreal Sagrada Família Church in Barcelona crossed with the Taj Mahal or St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. Tarsem’s fairy-tale forest is the antithesis of a Burtonesque nightmare tangle of gnarled branches and misshapen roots, with silver birches rising like clean columns from the snowy forest floor. Somewhat out of place in this forest, but still a wondrous sight, is the dwarfs’ rustic cottage, made in a hollow, uprooted stump of a tree of some species quite unlike anything growing around it.
Then there are the costumes, the last achievement of the late designer and art director Eiko Ishioka, who won an Oscar for her work in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and has created the costumes for all of Tarsem’s films to date. At times the costumes are reminiscent of impossibly elaborate confectionary creations, the work of some mad cake decorator. Or perhaps, given the Russian influence in the film (I've already mentioned St. Basil's, and Tarsem has cited Tarkovsky's Ivan’s Childhood and Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible as influences), we might say that the costumes recall the famously elaborate, jeweled work of the House of Fabergé.
There is a masquerade ballroom scene with all the participants arrayed with animal themes. The evil Queen (Julia Roberts) is a flaming red peacock, with an overgrown collar of white feathers framing her head like a fan tail. Snow White (Lily Collins, Sandra Bullock’s daughter in The Blind Side) is a regal swan, redeeming that noble bird from its tragic association with Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjork. The Prince (The Social Network’s Armie Hammer) is … a white rabbit. There’s some attempt to explain this undignified choice, but it’s basically a visual punch line.
Does this suggest that Mirror Mirror is another revisionist fairy tale inflected by aggrieved male-skewering feminism, like Alice in Wonderland? Revisionist, yes; feminist, yes; aggrieved male skewering, not so much.
The film opens with a beautifully imagined prologue using porcelain dolls to portray the traditional back story of Snow White’s birth, her kindly royal father’s disastrous remarriage and tragic end — though with a narrative twist provided by arch voice-over narration courtesy of the evil Queen herself. After that, though, the story goes its own way, in the process mangling the source material pretty much completely. In fairness, there is some basis in the Snow White tradition for some of its conceits, such as the Seven Dwarfs being bandits rather than delvers, and the mysterious ferocious beast prowling the wood.
Naturally, Snow progresses from being a naive, docile creature to a full-fledged sword-wielding heroine taking on the evil Queen and her magic. This is fine with me; the shortcomings of the old fairy-tale trope of the passive princess waiting for her prince to come can’t be ignored today, particularly by parents with daughters (though, come to think of it, it’s probably just as important for parents with sons). Unlike Alice, Mirror Mirror doesn’t blame patriarchal society for the heroine’s initial vulnerability, since, of course, she’s the victim of the Queen.
The Prince is a somewhat comic figure, though not as lacking in dignity and self-awareness as, say, Prince Edward in Enchanted (checking his teeth in his reflective sword, attempting to give battle to a city bus, etc.). It’s true that he’s robbed twice and stripped to his long johns, and, on the first occasion, he’s left tied up and needs to be rescued by Snow. Later, he succumbs to a rather humiliating spell and — in an outright reversal of the traditional story — it’s Snow who must free him from the spell with a kiss.
Still, he’s upright and honorable and strong enough that both Snow and the Queen pursue him for practical as well as personal reasons. All in all, he makes a reasonably credible love interest for both Snow and the Queen. And his inevitable duel with Snow in the forest is the most fun coed swordfight since Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones crossed blades in The Mask of Zorro.
The script is pretty pedestrian, and the humor seldom rises above the obvious. Julia Roberts is amusingly nasty and catty (there’s a better word here that rhymes with “witchy”) as the Queen, though her comedic secret weapon is the indefatigable Nathan Lane (best known to younger viewers as the voice of Snowbell the cat in the Stuart Little movies) as her put-upon servant Brighton. A gross-out sequence involving the Queen’s nauseating beauty regimen will have kids screaming with squeamish laughter and may or may not amuse their elders.
Alas, the humor is occasionally somewhat risqué. When the Prince and his faithful servant are robbed and stripped, the servant is wearing a corset — and when the Prince shows up at the castle “half nude,” as Brighton breathlessly reports, the Queen is much taken by the sight of his muscular, hairy physique, and only reluctantly allows him to cover up. (The second time it happens, she sighs, “Can someone please get this man a shirt so I can concentrate?”) Then there’s the bit where the Queen drugs the Prince (spoiler warning) with a love potion that turns out to instill literal puppy love, leading him to pounce on top of her and start licking her face. Then there’s a bit where Brighton is temporarily transformed into a cockroach — and afterward wails that, in addition to everything else, “a grasshopper took advantage of me.”
Fortunately, Snow herself is a winsome heroine, and her romance with the Prince is both sweet and innocent. Better still, her hero’s journey is neither a quest of self-empowerment nor a mere romantic quest, but is rooted in something nobler: She discovers, to her dismay, that the Queen’s tyrannical rule has reduced her subjects to poverty and starvation. (What’s more, even the Queen, despite her lavish lifestyle, is flat broke, since you can’t tax a destitute population.) Oh, and while the story comes down, like Alice, to a duel with a dragon-like monster, the climactic twist here is as redemptive as the climax in Alice, um, wasn’t.
Tarsem’s gift for visual invention constantly enlivens the proceedings, from a simple maneuver with a tablecloth to the brilliant nuttiness of the dwarfs’ combat technology, a conceit embodying all possible meanings of the phrase “nonsense on stilts.” The magic mirror becomes something dazzlingly surreal: Instead of a mere interface with the world of magic, it becomes a rippling portal into another world through which the Queen passes, rising like a phantom from the surface of a vast sea onto an eerie wooden structure where she encounters the spirit of the mirror — her own reflection. One of the most stunning sequences is a surreal attack on the dwarfs’ hut that is too good to spoil here.
Mirror Mirror is the first of this year’s dueling Snow White pictures (take that however you like), opening two months ahead of Snow White and the Huntsman. The latter film looks like everything Mirror Mirror isn’t: a gritty, epic adventure with an armor-clad Amazon princess. Mirror Mirror certainly isn’t a perfect film, but it’s closer in spirit to what a Hollywood fairy tale should be than anything anyone else is even trying to do these days.
Steven D. Greydanus is the Register’s film critic.
Content Advisory: Some mildly frightening moments and action violence; mild rude humor and a sequence of gross-out humor; depictions of theft. Tweens and up.
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I haven’t seen MIRROR MIRROR myself, and what I’m about to say isn’t about anything Steve actually says but about an impression a few of his sentences might leave ... that Tarsem is the anti-Burton, coupled with the (indubitable) points about the darkness in Burton’s recent worlds.
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Of Tarsem’s three previous films, only one—THE FALL—is even arguably a family film (though, like Steve’s descriptions of MIRROR MIRROR, there’s some pretty original Grimm-like stuff in it too). Here’s a review I wrote of it
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http://vjmorton.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/toronto-day-4-capsules/
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His other two films are THE CELL and IMMORTALS, and while I liked the one of them of seen (the former), they’re both rather brutal films with lots of bizarrely creative violence. (I’m relying on reports, reviews and trailers for the latter obviously andneill gladly take correction if I’m wrong.)
Victor, you’re dead on re: Immortals. Lots of human (r at least apparently human) flesh gets sizzled, exploded, and/or sliced in ways that started to boggle this viewer’s mind.
Thanks for your comments, Victor. I agree with everything you say; FWIW, The Cell was probably my most hated film of 2000, and while I really dug The Fall, I wouldn’t show it to my kids. Looking back, I think I was trying to do too many things in the paragraph you cite: I do think there are global contrasts between Tarsem and Burton that are interesting, but the most salient points are particular to Mirror Mirror vs. Alice. I’ve revised the sentence to read “In a way, one could say that the director of Mirror Mirror is the anti-Burton.” I think that gets at what I was trying to say.
Faint praise indeed.
qwertyuiop: Faint praise? True enough, if you average it out. I prefer to think of it as high praise qualified with significant caveats. I can’t rate it any higher than a B. I wish I could. If the screenplay had been a shade or two stronger and more high-minded, this could have been an instant family classic.
Didn’t we already learn the lesson that “cross-dressing is fun” in Shrek? Why the need for Hollywood to repeat the lesson?
David: In fairness, corsets were never an exclusively feminine garment, so it’s not cross-dressing per se.
Steven: In your review, you transitioned from the word “risque” to the scene with the corset. Now you’re saying that young people will contextualize that scene according to the history of fashion?
David: I don’t think young people will know it’s a corset. It’s just funny underwear. I actually read a review by a grownup who didn’t know what it was.
Steven:
I have only seen the TV promos but was a little surprised by your complimentary review. The trailer bits seem very much about ridiculing masculinity (again) and idolizing ‘girl power’. What on earth is wrong with having the prince rescue the princess?? Is it even possible for Hollywood to simply tell the traditional story without adding a bit of poison to the apple??
Matthew
Matthew: I think I’m pretty sensitized to the issues you cite, and I think my reviews bear that out. Alice in Wonderland does the things you describe. Mirror Mirror doesn’t really. It’s too good-natured and gentle. It sends up the Prince, but there’s no mean-spirited ridiculing of masculinity. It embraces, but doesn’t “worship,” girl power. I’m not saying the apple will be to everyone’s taste, or that it doesn’t have any bruised bits, but I wouldn’t call it “poisoned.”
P.S. Bear in mind that promos sell what marketers think audiences want, not necessarily what movies are offering.
i just went on your recommendation and you’re right, it is gorgeous. The prologue is exquisite, the costumes are sumptuous, the architecture is breathtaking and the actors aren’t bad either. I myself am a woman of a certain age (and am currently reading Teresa Tomeo’s excellent “Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, not Conformed to the Culture) so may have this theme on the brain -but did you get the subtext that we (middle-aged women) are sacrificing our young to our quest for beauty at any cost? Of all the characters I found the Queen the most complex (although the strong King/Father figure at the end was refreshing, he was diminished by his assertion that his authority came from himself). I grant that my own struggles with aging in a culture that prizes youth/sex/beauty over all else may have made me more sympathetic to the plight of the queen than the director intended but if so, why would he use Pretty Woman? All that said this is the kind of movie that makes me crazier than the really bad fare. It could be so good! The tools for really great art are shown in the visual aspects and these really interesting themes are lurking beneath the surface like koi but the dialogue is mediocre and the overt themes are either overdone or trite.
The comment about the gross-out makeover was made by someone who has never seen the inside of a spa. That scene and the comment about the relative merits and demerits of puppy love were, in my opinion, the funniest in the movie.
On the whole I don’t think it is a great portrayal of men (although I agree it is too bumbling to be toxic) but I did love the reference to masculine modesty/dignity as the Prince is made visibly uncomfortable by the Queen’s lecherous ogling.
So glad to hear this, want to see it.
“What’s the last movie you saw that created an imaginary world that was actually beautiful, bursting with color and beauty and inspiration?” Quite frankly, I thought Scorsese created that type of world in Hugo. Also, Hugo was mostly family friendly and well worth seeing on the big screen for its gorgeouse cinematography, art direction, and visual effects.
While I suppose it is fair to say that most of Burton’s films are rather dark and he has never created a world one would want to visist, Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands do not have the luird pallor that some of his other films have.
KHM: Good comments, thanks. I think the theme of women sacrificing their young for beauty is implicit in the Snow White story, though I don’t think it’s particularly strong here (this Queen is vain but more driven by insecurity and will to power).
Nice point about the Prince’s discomfort with being ogled, which, FWIW, has an implicit feminist subtext of the good sort, although it took a woman (you) calling out the scene for me to notice it.
Evan: Good call on Hugo, which, FWIW, made my top 20 for 2012.
“Unlike Alice, Mirror Mirror doesn’t blame patriarchal society for the heroine’s initial vulnerability, since, of course, she’s the victim of the Queen…”
I dunno; isn’t the queen’s obsession w/her own beauty a consequence of patriarchal society? so indirectly…
Jack Perry: Nice.
Even so, this Queen is less driven by obsession with beauty than other versions of the story. She’s more about privilege and will to power. She doesn’t even ask the Mirror if she’s the fairest of all (although the Mirror indicates that she does ask the question and wouldn’t like the answer if it were anyone but her).
Sounds like a total waste of time to me.
The same guy that made The Cell made this? That film gave me nightmares. It was so sadistically morbid - a guy kidnaps and kills teen girls and pretends they’re his dolls. I only watched it because J Lo. is usually a decent actress. But wow, what a warped film. I mean you see a lot of grisly violence and tons of perverted fetish stuff.
Just gross. Can’t believe that same guy would try to make a family film.
Linus: Can beauty ever be a total waste of time?
Nuke: I take second place to no one in my hatred of The Cell. It came out the year I started Decent Films, and my review of it was a test case in how to review a film that I found repugnant in just about every conceivable way. What offended me about it was not just the grisly violence and perverse stuff, but that it showed us perversion and misogyny transfigured (in the mind of the serial killer) into something darkly glorious and majestic. I can never forgive that film for that.
But I can forgive Tarsem, particularly after his second film, The Fall, which I admired a great deal. I didn’t see his third film, Immortals. But I like Mirror Mirror quite a bit.
Oh, come on. The movie is a noxious pill of Hollywood anti-values and yet another assault on masculinity. Greydanus is surely the movie reviewer MOST out of touch with Catholic Christian values, and shouldn’t be reviewing for a Catholic website at all.
Gteydanus, you’re a girlie man, straight up.
Thomas Gillespie: I usually make a thing about civil discourse, and axe comments that descend to personal insults, but the juxtaposition of “Catholic Christian values” and the “girlie man” insult is so goofily incongruous that I can’t resist letting them stand. I admit my conscience bothers me, though, since I’m afraid I may be placing my own amusement above charity to you. I will pray for you at adoration later tonight, and hope for the Lord’s mercy to me, a sinner.
That’s right ... listen to us now and believe us later, little gurlie man. I am Vic and he iss Tom, and veer not here to tokk, veer here to film ... you up.
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Look at zuh poor little gurlie man Steefe, in his little gurlie house, the flabby little loser. Reading thees little pathetic writings when he could be coming das pikter of pumpitude like uss
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[pose]
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Yes, Stefan ... Hear me now and belieffe me later, but don’t ssink about it effer, because, if you try to think, you might cause a flabulance! Oh and little gurlie man, here’s a treat from Thomass and me for your passetic little girlfriend, who probably forgotten what a real men looks like
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[pose]
Victor Morton: a) Thanks for that. b) I’ll pray for you in adoration tonight too.
Saw this with a couple other guys today - enjoyed it a great deal, especially in light of this review. Thanks for the tip; I’ll be recommending it (and your article) to others. Its good to have family-friendly fare that I can share with others.
The silliness (admittedly amusing) of the ‘love potion’ aside, I liked how the movie avoided tearing down masculinity as it empowered femininity. A thin line to walk that most movies don’t even attempt.
“But I can forgive Tarsem, particularly after his second film, The Fall, which I admired a great deal. I didn’t see his third film, Immortals.”
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Honestly, I don’t think I will ever forgive Tarsem for creating a film as revolting as Immortals. Please give it a pass if you can, it pretty much raped Greek mythology in my opinion. I came out of the theater wanting to erase that movie from my mind, it literally gave me nightmares. Neverending brutal scenes of torture, gross killings, gallons of blood, gratuitous sex scene, you name it, it was there. Worst movie I’ve seen in a decade or more. Just remembering it makes me want to throw up.
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So no, I will not watch “Mirror, Mirror”, unless I’m really bored and I can borrow the DVD for free. :)
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Anyway, thanks for your review! I also appreciated your insightful review of “The Hunger Games” a movie I greatly enjoyed. Keep up the good work!
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